YOUR PALACE FOR THE NIGHT

I’ve often thought I should like to live at Hampton Court. It looks so peaceful and so quiet, and it is such a dear old place to ramble round in the early morning before many people are about.

--Jerome K. Jerome

“Three Men in a Boat,” 1889

*

It was midnight, and a soft rain fell on Hampton Court Palace, accentuating the peace and quiet on this, my last night here. Alone in the main courtyard, I was surrounded by Tudor chimneys and towers, silent sentries bearing witness to almost five centuries of British history.

The past dwells in the present at Hampton Court, populated by the characters who shaped the British Empire: the churlish Henry VIII, who lived here with all six of his wives; his daughter, Elizabeth I, known as Good Queen Bess; Edward VI, christened here, a king at 10 and dead by age 16; Charles I, ultimately condemned as a “tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy”; Oliver Cromwell, who helped engineer Charles’ demise; and William III and Mary II, who mandated the redesign of Hampton Court. All called it home.

Last summer, my family, two friends and I did too. Our “hotel” for a week was the Fish Court apartment, built by Henry VIII for members of the kitchen staff. As one who enjoys historic lodgings, I had found the ultimate accommodation.

We booked our stay through the Landmark Trust, a nonprofit British organization offering more than 150 self-catering accommodations in castles, cottages, forts and gatehouses throughout Britain. Visitors rent these properties by the week in summer and for three- or four-day stays the rest of the year. Although not inexpensive, they typically cost less than a hotel stay for the same number of people.

I first visited Hampton Court six years ago, taking the half-hour train trip from London to Hampton Court Station and joining the thousands who visit the palace daily. Even then, I never dreamed one could actually stay here.

Three years ago on another trip to England, we rented, through Landmark Trust, a thatch-roofed cottage built into the remains of a medieval gatehouse, circa 1600, near Taunton. Thumbing through the trust’s handbook, I was surprised to see two properties at Hampton Court--Fish Court and, just north of the palace, the elegant 1719 Georgian House, with its own walled garden and enough room to sleep eight. I knew a stay here would be unforgettable.

That is how, on a family vacation, we came to take up residence in August in the four-bedroom Fish Court flat--my wife, Katherine, and I; our two sons, Henry, 14, and Alex, 10; and our friends Bob and Diane Thomson, who live in Arizona. Because we booked 10 months in advance, we paid 1998 rates, about $2,200. (The apartment will cost about $2,650 for a week this year at the peak of the summer season.)

Surrounded by rich royal history, we felt it fitting somehow that Queen Elizabeth II, who owns Hampton Court, became our landlady.

Hampton Court, 13 miles southwest of central London on the banks of the Thames, is a wondrous mix of Tudor and Baroque architecture and artifacts: Henry VIII’s Great Hall, which could serve 300 diners at a time; the ornate State Apartments; the massive 16th century kitchens; glorious tapestries and paintings from the royal collection; fabulous courtyards; a royal chapel; and sumptuous gardens.

A visitor can see Hampton Court in a day, but it’s a very full--almost overwhelming--day. Our stay allowed us to absorb the history of the palace gradually. Each of us received a pass at the beginning of the week that provided virtually unlimited access to the tourist areas that are open during the day and to the palace grounds, ours to visit whenever we pleased, day or night. From our apartment, a rich, royal history lesson was just steps away.

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII, acquired Hampton Court in 1514. Wolsey wanted to build a magnificent home for himself, and in this he succeeded perhaps too well. As his power waned, he gave Hampton Court to a jealous Henry in 1528 to try to appease him and curry favor. Unable to secure the pope’s approval for Henry’s divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, Wolsey died in 1530 as he was traveling to London to answer a charge of treason.

What Wolsey began and his king finished in 1540 was a magnificent Tudor palace of red brick, with gatehouses, towers and decorated chimneys.

Today the palace is a blend of styles, the Tudor characterized by its brickwork, cupolas, turrets and mullioned windows, and the Baroque style noteworthy for its columns and wreaths and grander excesses. The architect of the Baroque additions, Christopher Wren, made massive alterations for William and Mary beginning in 1689. Wren originally planned to demolish the entire Tudor palace, but fortunately the project ran out of time and money. (Wren did demolish the private Tudor apartments on the south and east sides of the palace and replaced them with the state and private apartments.) Wren’s exteriors are more ornate and obviously from a different time, but they blend well, with their use of brick and the fairly consistent height of the structures. When Wren was finished, the palace, built around three principal courtyards, was virtually complete.

The palace buildings today cover six acres and contain 1,100 rooms, about 60 of which are open to the public. Visitors to Hampton Court, opened to the public in 1838 by Queen Victoria, can tour the various sections of the palace at their leisure: Henry VIII’s State Apartments, the Tudor Kitchens, the Wolsey Rooms and Renaissance Picture Gallery, the King’s Apartments, the Queen’s State Apartments and the Georgian Rooms.

The oldest interior parts of the palace, the Wolsey Rooms, contain some original Tudor features including fireplaces, dark linen-fold oak paneling (carved to look like folded fabric) and ribbed and paneled wood ceilings. It was in these rooms that Charles I was held prisoner by Cromwell’s Roundheads in 1647 before his trial and execution. The Wolsey Rooms now contain a selection from the royal art collection, including paintings depicting Hampton Court at various stages of development.

The much-altered parts of Henry VIII’s palace that remain and are open include the Great Hall, the largest single room in the palace, and the Chapel Royal, in continuous use for 450 years. Looking at the chapel’s magnificent blue and gold ceiling with carved and gilded pendants, I felt as though it reached down toward me while its gold stars against a blue background swept me upward.

In what may be an apocryphal story, Henry VIII is said to have been in that chapel when Catherine Howard, wife No. 5 who was being held on charges of adultery, escaped from her lodgings and ran down a gallery outside the chapel trying to reach her husband. She was dragged, screaming, back to captivity, and her ghost is said to still shriek in the hall, now known as the Haunted Gallery. She was beheaded in 1542.

The following year, Henry married his last wife, Catherine Parr, in the Queen’s Closet adjoining the Chapel Royal. He died in 1547, and she died the next year.

The later Baroque interiors at Hampton Court are far more lavish than even Henry’s rooms. Rich tapestries, priceless paintings, bed hangings in gold and crimson, dazzling chandeliers and stunning silver and grand furnishings are found throughout the 40 or so rooms of Wren’s addition that can be visited.

I was particularly taken with some of the smaller rooms. Queen Caroline’s private oratory is memorable for its carved and molded dome ceiling, and William III’s private drawing room, his office, with its warm woods, seemed an appealing place to sit down and work.

The buildings and courtyards are surrounded by 60 acres of formal gardens and 600 acres of parkland. William and Mary had broad geometric walks with trees and flowers placed amid large, grassy expanses, culminating in a semicircular canal added by Queen Anne in the early 1700s. A bit farther from the palace, the Long Water, a great canal dug for Charles II in the 1660s that reaches into the surrounding parkland, is a haven for waterfowl.

My sons enjoyed exploring the half-mile of paths in the delightful hedge maze, planted in 1702, even after we discovered the solution. The flower-edged geometric designs of the Privy Garden, planted that same year, have been restored to look as they did at the start of the 18th century. Next to that are the walled Pond Gardens, where fish were kept until they were eaten. The pond has been drained and is now flower beds. Both gardens, highly decorated and enclosed, felt formal to me, another regal reminder of where we were.

I t was not all palace intrigue at Hampton Court. There was merrymaking and feasting, requiring meals fit for a king. The massive Tudor kitchens include dressing rooms where food was garnished, cellars, a boiling house where meat was cooked and serving areas. Visitors will see that the kitchens are standing at the ready to prepare a midsummer feast in 1542, although they would have been a busy place any time the court was in residence.

The center of kitchen operations was Fish Court, a long, narrow courtyard whose many doors led to the several offices of the 36,000-square-foot kitchens.

At the end of this courtyard, through a locked door and up a flight of stairs, we entered our private apartment. Besides the four bedrooms, our 1,700-square-foot flat had living and dining rooms, two bathrooms and a simple, functional kitchen with enough equipment to make a meal. (Landmark Trust properties usually do not have telephones, televisions, microwaves or dishwashers, but ours had a phone because it is part of the palace’s system.)

Traditional couches and overstuffed chairs shared the living room with a writing table next to the arched, leaded windows. My wife and I, the Thomsons and both boys had our own bedrooms, which were also comfortably furnished. Some of our rooms overlooked Fish Court, others looked toward parkland and still others had views over some of the famed chimneys that top the palace. Each morning, the smell of the fire being lighted in a huge Tudor fireplace in the kitchens found its way to our apartment, adding to the ambience.

We often prepared our own meals, buying groceries at a market a 10-minute drive away. Laden with bags, we enjoyed the quizzical expressions of the tourists as we walked past them in Fish Court, produced our key and disappeared.

We ventured out for meals too. Through the Trophy Gate, across a bridge over the Thames and into the community of East Molesey we strolled one night for a fun pub dinner of meat pies, fish and chips, and a few pints at the Prince of Wales. Another night we had an Italian meal at Vecchia Roma, where the three-cheese ravioli Florentine was a hit with Henry--my son, not the king.

Hampton Court also provided a home base for us for nearby excursions. Some days the six of us climbed into our rental van for trips to nearby Kew Gardens and Greenwich and longer outings to Dover Castle, Hever Castle, Chartwell and Canterbury.

Each time we returned and were waved through the Trophy Gate by a guard, we felt as though we were returning home.

In 1718, Alexander Pope wrote of his experience at Hampton Court: “I walked the other day by the moon, and met no creature of quality but the king, who was giving audience all alone to the birds under the garden wall.”

Under that moonless sky my last night at Hampton Court, I met many creatures of quality: kings and men who would be kings, good and merciful queens; little princes and palace conspirators. Their spirits were there, amid the raindrops, quiet and peaceful in this palace we called home.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

GUIDEBOOK

Arranging a Royal Stay in Britain

Getting there: Nonstop service from LAX to London is available on American, British Airways, United, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand. Restricted round-trip air fares begin at $688 starting Saturday.

Booking a Landmark property: Landmark Trust recommends reserving at least a year in advance, especially for high season. Reservations are accepted up to two years in advance. (We booked Fish Court 10 months in advance and did not get our first week of choice.) A few dates are still available for the Fish Court apartment this spring and summer; more dates are available in the fall. You may be able to get on a waiting list, but cancellations are rare, Landmark officials say.

The best introduction to Hampton Court and other Landmark Trust properties is the 175-plus page handbook. It costs $21.50 and is refundable against the first booking.

For a copy of the book or to reserve a property, contact the Landmark Trust, 707 Kipling Road, Dummerston, VT 05301; telephone (802) 254-6868. In Britain, contact the Landmark Trust, Shottesbrooke, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 3SW, England; tel.011-44-1628-825-925, fax 011-44-1628-825-417, Internet https://www.landmarktrust.co .uk.

Visiting Hampton Court Palace: Admission to the palace is about $18.35 for adults, $14 for students and seniors, $12.25 for ages 5 to 15 and free for children younger than 5. There is also a family admission for two adults and up to three children for about $55. For information, call 011-44-20-8781-9500, Internet https://www.hrp.org.uk.

For more information: British Tourist Authority, 551 Fifth Ave., Suite 701, New York, NY 10176-0799; tel. (800) 462-2748, Internet https://www.btausa.com.